Bush to visit credit counseling agency in Freehold on Friday

President Bush plans a trip to Freehold on Friday afternoon to visit a non-profit credit counseling service and talk about the mortgage crisis.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said today the president will visit Novadebt, "tour the facility and make a statement on housing."

Novadebt, founded in 1991, offers free housing- and credit-counseling services to families and individuals in need, according to its web site.http://www.hopenow.com/http://www.hopenow.com/Perino said Novadebt is approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide counseling on housing finance issues, and is part of a public-private alliance called Hope Now designed to help financially distressed homeowners facing the threat of foreclosure.

"For example, when a person calls the Hope Now Alliance, the homeowner's hope hotline, Novadebt is one of the companies that they would be referred to, so that they could get the help that they are seeking," Perino told reporters at the daily White House briefing.